Speech recognition techniques translate an acoustic signal into a computer-readable format. Speech recognition systems have been used for various applications, including data entry applications that allow a user to dictate desired information to a computer device, security applications that restrict access to a particular device or secure facility, and speech-to-text transcription for information retrieval and other applications. A speech recognition system typically uses a particular speaker model that has been trained for the speech of a particular speaker.
Automatic speech recognition techniques can be used to transcribe a meeting with several participants. Since a given speech recognition system uses only one speaker model at a time, however, they speaker model must be changed each time there is a corresponding change in speaker. Generally, the speech recognition system must therefore automatically detect a change in speaker, obtain the identity of the speaker and then download the appropriate model for the identified speaker. During this transitional speaker process, conventional speech recognition systems are unable to transcribe the speech at all, or do so with the wrong speaker model providing generally poor results.
A need therefore exists for an improved method and apparatus for transcribing the speech of a number of participants. In addition, a need exists for a method and apparatus for transcribing the speech of a number of participants that does not provide interrupted transcription when there is a speaker change.